McAfee Corp announced findings from its Global Small Business Study which surveyed the owners and IT decision makers at small businesses across six countries to discover their thoughts and behavior around cybersecurity.

The study, conducted in collaboration with Dell Technologies, reveals cybersecurity is one of the greatest concerns of small businesses globally, with 73% of organizations saying it is one of their biggest risks or vulnerabilities. And these fears are justified. The data shows that cyberattacks are on the rise, as 44% of small businesses have experienced a cyberattack, and 17% have experienced more than one. For 67% of the organizations that experienced a cyberattack, the incident occurred in the last two years, indicating that the threat of cybercrime has become more prevalent.

For a small business, even a single cyber incident can be devastating to the bottom line. For small business owners who experienced a cyberattack, 61% lost more than $10,000 dealing with the attack. In addition, more than half (60%) of the business owners and IT decision makers indicated that the cyberattack on their business took a physical or mental toll on them and/or their staff or colleagues. In 58% of the cases, the business lost more than a week of valuable time dealing with IT issues due to the attack.

These cyberattacks have a significant impact on the finances, customer trust, and operating efficiency of small companies, causing customer data (38%), passwords (34%) or other files (34%) to be lost. Many of these attacks (43%) were caused by someone mistakenly downloading malware by clicking on a phishing link and/or opening a malicious attachment.

Unfortunately, small business owners are at a significant disadvantage when faced with malicious messages that are increasingly realistic and frequent thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). AI is a scammer's favorite tool, helping cybercriminals increase the scale, speed and sophistication of phishing and text message scams.

To help reduce AI-related concerns and anxieties about data security, small business owners need AI to beat AI. This cutting-edge technology can work in their favor to proactively protect them in real-time before they even know they have been targeted. For example, the AI-driven technology behind McAfee's McAfee Scam Protection, proactively blocks dangerous links that appear in text messages, social media, or web browsers and allows users to engage with text messages, read emails, and browse the web peacefully and securely.

Cybersecurity Support and Responsibilities

Many small business owners understand that cyber threats are something they need to plan for and invest in mitigating. Despite their awareness, only about half (48%) of business owners/IT decision makers were fully confident in the ability of their business to prevent cyberattacks. Most small businesses (76%) manage cybersecurity without the help of others outside their business and almost half (45%) said they focus on overall general IT issues more than 7 hours a week.

McAfee and Dell's Global Small Business Study also found:

• Nearly one-third (24%) of business owners worry about cyberattacks daily.
• Less than half (46%) of the business owners or IT decision makers are confident in employees' ability to take necessary steps to protect company devices and IP.
• A majority (68%) of small business owners believe their cybersecurity risks are increasing.
• One-third (30%) of the small businesses that experienced cyberattacks reported the attacks occurred due to a vulnerability in outdated or unpatched software that was breached.

Resources for Small Businesses' Digital Defense

In an increasingly complex online world, the need for resources and products to help keep small business owners and their employees informed and protected online has never been greater.

McAfee's Business Protection is a comprehensive security solution built specifically for small business owners to ensure comprehensive protection for employees, data, devices, and online connections. Launched in collaboration with Dell Technologies last year, the software helps small business customers stay ahead of cyber threats and vulnerabilities with award-winning security, identity monitoring on the dark web, VPN, web protection for safe browsing, and more. In addition to the security features McAfee Business Protection has also been designed to be extremely intuitive and is easy to use with automated protections, timely alerts, and simple user interface.

"We understand the vulnerabilities and risks small business owners face, and we're committed to providing them industry leading online protection solutions that let them do what they do best and let us do what we do best - protect you, your data, and your customers," said Pedro Gutierrez, Senior Vice President of Sales for McAfee.

In addition, to help educate small business professionals about the growing cyber threat landscape, and to arm them with tips to keep their data, employees, customers and livelihoods safe, McAfee and Dell have prepared a free small business resource guide.